SpaceX and United Launch Alliance have made the construction and launch of space-faring rockets seem almost commonplace. Once in a while things don't go completely right, but it is amazing how much a successful launch is now taken for granted. This was not always the case!
Growing up, I was faced with the daunting prospects of the Cold War and the nuclear arms race. Every couple weeks there seemed to be yet another nuclear weapon test on the nightly news. First with atomic bombs and later with hydrogen bombs. It was common to hear and see daily reminders of Duck and Cover, fallout shelters, and Mutual Assured Destruction. It was a frightening time to be a child. Especially since there were certain "facilities" in the area that would likely put us on the list of Soviet targets.
Juxtaposed with that fear was a sense of hope and destiny. John F. Kennedy had just been elected president. His inaugural address challenged: "Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country." Then, on the heels of the USSR's Yuri Gagarin becoming the first person in space, Kennedy became "eager for the U.S. to take the lead in the Space Race, for reasons of national security and prestige." A short while later, Kennedy gave his famous speech (transcript and video [NB: He doesn't even seem to sweat!]) in which he uttered the challenge:
We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon... (interrupted by applause) we choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.
The United States thereupon launched headlong on the space race. It was a heady time when it seemed almost anything was possible. Science would continue to unlock countless mysteries. Hope reigned high.
It was during this period I was introduced to model rockets and spent countless hours constructing, launching, and [trying to] recover them. Oh, to be an astronaut someday! Estes rockets got far more of my limited funds at that time than they had any right to!
Eventually, the race to the moon hit a climax with Apollo 11 and Neil Armstrong ("That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.") and Buzz Aldrin becoming the first humans to step upon the moon.
Moon colonies were surely just a matter of time and there was talk of humans making the journey to Mars, as well.
Sadly, although the Apollo Program proved a huge source for gaining scientific knowledge (the moon rocks that were returned are still being examined), the thirst for human space flight abated and the race to the moon became better known as "Flags and Footprints". Sure, there was the ensuing Space Shuttle. Laps around the Earth are, however, a far cry from performing activities on other bodies in our solar system.
So, it is against this backdrop that I came upon Destin Sandlin's YouTube channel called Smarter Every Day and his 54m16s video HOW ROCKETS ARE MADE (Rocket Factory Tour - United Launch Alliance). It is the very first video tour of ULA's largest — 1.6 million square feet (~150,000 square meter) — rocket factory located in Decatur, Alabama. It is where they construct their Delta IV and Atlas V rockets, and soon their Vulcan rockets, too.
In Destin's own words:
How this happened: I messaged Tory[*] "If you ever find yourself with an open lunch I'll buy. No cameras, just rocket geek chat."
A few months later he changed a flight one day so we could grab lunch, but he also carved out a couple of hours before lunch to give me a personal tour.
He's as cool off camera as he is on camera. He allowed me to ask any technical question I had, and I never even got close to the limits of his understanding of rockets. His technical prowess is something I aspire to.
[*] Tory: Tory Bruno who, since August of 2014, has been the CEO of ULA (United Launch Alliance).
Watch the entire process from when raw aluminum and other materials come into one end of the factory through it being cut, planed, machined, curved, welded and finally assembled into a rocket that exits the other end. The simultaneously huge scale and ultra-high precision tolerances are amazing. Having followed all thing space since a youth, actually seeing what it took to make a real life rocket was amazing.
Now I'm hoping to see a similar tour of SpaceX's facilities!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 12 2020, @02:02AM
SpaceX and United Launch Alliance have made the construction and launch of space-faring rockets seem almost commonplace.
Dear SLA PR folks: What's this .and. stuff?
X yes, SLA seems like more the reverse.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 12 2020, @04:29AM
A couple of engineer friends work at the big SpaceX Hawthorne plant and I had a tour about 5 years ago. While I only walked down the center aisle of the big plant, we saw rocket motor production, booster tanks just after welding and the paint line. Rocket motors made the biggest impression on me, each motor sat on a pallet and the pallets were moved once a day from one assembly station to the next. Off the end of the line was an engine a day -- about 250 per year.
They were just starting up a small 3D metal printer lab. The goal was to be able to print many repair parts in space, saving the need to carry a big inventory on the Mars trip.
If you get the chance, don't miss this tour!
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 12 2020, @05:08AM (2 children)
This is a rather optimistic take on things, which I suppose is nice for a change! But the reality is that the reason the moon rocks are still being examined is because we haven't left low earth orbit since 1972, we're just about to come up on the half a century mark unless SpaceX can nail their goals. So those 50 year old moon rocks are pretty much all we have. And that's a damned shame.
The reason I mention this is that ULA/Boeing/Lockheed (United Launch Alliance being an anticompetitive merger between Boeing and Lockheed, for those who were unaware) have played a key role in the deterioration of our space abilities. They choose to put profit ahead of everything, which means they made billions of dollars - but progress in space came to a near complete standstill. It was none other than Tory Bruno that claimed that reusable rockets were not economically viable. In providing source to that claim I've realized search engines are not especially good at searching. Nonetheless, I did dig up this much more recent article (2015) where he claims [spaceflightnow.com] that it'd take reusable rockets at least 15 launches a piece to become more economically viable than throw away rockets. Needless to say, today SpaceX (averaging ~3-4 reuses) launches rockets at a commercial cost of around $60 million. ULA was selling launches to the government at prices upwards of $400 million. [arstechnica.com] They actually planned (are planning?) to *increase* costs to around half a billion per launch with the SLS. Progress, ULA style!
So in general, I find this flattery undeserved. Tory Bruno is a part of the very system which crippled space in America, and he tried to perpetuate that crippling. The only reason we're now back to making rapid progress is because he failed.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 12 2020, @06:29AM
How the pork sausage is made ;)
(Score: 2) by martyb on Friday March 13 2020, @02:42AM
Yes, I share your qualms of how it can cost ULA so much to make a rocket compared to how comparatively little it costs SpaceX.
Say what you will about the man, but Elon Musk sure knows how to get publicity to work for him. Self-broadcasting their launches. Even putting together a "blooper reel" of How NOT to land an orbital rocket booster [youtube.com].
Maybe I missed it (and if I have; PLEASE reply with a link!), but I do not recall ever seeing a tour of SpaceX's rocket construction facilities. Maybe someone will point out this ULA factory tour to Elon and Destin will get to go on another tour for us!
Wit is intellect, dancing. I'm too old to act my age. Life is too important to take myself seriously.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 12 2020, @02:46PM
Let me guess:
How rockets WERE made b4 SpaceX